UNITEDRANT

Rant Cast 114 – end of season spectaculaaaaar

In the final double-length Rant Cast of the season regulars Ed and Paul look back on Manchester United’s victory over Sunderland, which ultimately proved fruitless as Manchester City stole the Premier League crown in dramatic circumstances.

We offer an all encompassing review of the season, looking at the reasons United didn’t take this year’s title and what Sir Alex Ferguson might do about it in the summer. We ponder what’s next for a legion of United players including Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov, Tom Cleverley, Darren Fletcher, David de Gea, Phil Jones and Paul Pogba!

Also this week: Rant Cast Awards – our best and worst moments of the season, favourite goals, best games and top players. Plus ll your nominations!

We talk Kenny Dalglish as Fenway Sports Group finally fires the veteran Scot from his post in charge of Liverpool, and with United’s Q3 financials out we ask just how have the Glazers spent £71 million on debt repayment in the current financial year.

Europe: Roy Hodgson excludes Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick from a thoroughly depressing Euro 2012 squad, and the Champions League final with Chelsea and Bayern Munich.

Finally, in a special end of season bonus we also have interviews with some of our favourite listeners, friends and bloggers….

Charmingman93 – ah but he grew up in the burbs – Real Madrid country. Atletico draws its fans from central Madrid, the estates if you will. He might of played for Atletico but I’d bet a fair amount he wasn’t Atletico as a small boy. But if not Madrid, Barca.. you get the picture. They’ll come calling…

We were right, the guy has potential! I mean I hate to use this argument, but he’s barely 2-3 years older than me, he has a lot to learn! Plus there’s playing in a league that has a totally different playing style to the Premier League, so of course he was going to get it wrong in some places.

Which means this question has to be asked: if Messi is considered the greatest player of our time (apart from Ronaldo) would he actually be good if not better in the Premier League, or not so good? As we can see, Ronaldo has done!

Its scary, but we can’t give up hope. I mean I’ll agree with anyone cynical that we can’t rely on the stadium and heritage alone to attract players. A lot of young players like money, and lots of it. I think we shouldn’t try delving into the transfer market too much, and just concentrate on the academy. Eventually other teams that just buy player after player won’t have a good youth squad coming in.

I don’t know I’m probably VERY wrong on this. It sounds very glazernomics but, youth is a United speciality!

Well if Spain don’t sort their economy out… those clubs will struggle to pay their bills…
Not that I expect Plastini to do anything about it, mind…

“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and ching’ tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.”

Ed said:
Charmingman93 – ah but he grew up in the burbs – Real Madrid country. Atletico draws its fans from central Madrid, the estates if you will. He might of played for Atletico but I’d bet a fair amount he wasn’t Atletico as a small boy. But if not Madrid, Barca.. you get the picture. They’ll come calling…

Well if Spain don’t sort their economy out… those clubs will struggle to pay their bills…

I have a crazy idea about how to solve this injury crisis after being inspired by a friend who does a very hard martial art. Condition the players! Think about it, martial artists condition themselves because they take a beating, that goes for boxing, karate etc. Footballers don’t hence why some are VERY injury prone. If they were to condition the likes of Ando and Rafael – bear in mind this is more to do with muscles and bones not illnesses I’m afraid – we might just stand a chance of keeping them fit. But knowing Ando, trying to condition him would make his bones shatter like shooting glass with a pellet gun, then smashing the remainder with a sledgehammer.

Thanks for this season’s podcasts. Enjoyed them all immensely. I’m glad that you’re sticking with the Man Utd Calypso song for the show – my seven year old daughter loves that tune. A shame we ended trophy-less, but let’s hope that this inspires the youngsters and creates a hunger to win. Too much complacency from the players and from SAF for me. The players don’t seem to work as hard as they used to and sometimes expect it to happen, rather than making it happen. Hopefully, we can remedy that next season and get a bit more positive play going. I’m hoping for a move away from 442 or 4411 in many games, just so that we can start getting a grip of the midfield. I hope we manage to invest in a few decent players – I don’t expect any superstars (well I do really, but the practicalities of Glazernomics dictate otherwise), but I do epect some good, established players that will improve us and not just raw, young talent. Keep up the great work!

Hazard’s been tempted by Chelsea whose “arrival at the negotiation table will delay things”.

Seriously, never have I seen someone pimp themselves out so shamelessly. This guy will be worse than Ronaldo once he tells himself he’s as good as Maradona and Pele a few years down the line. And puts in a transfer request to play for his dream club.

Commenter said:
Hazard’s been tempted by Chelsea whose “arrival at the negotiation table will delay things”.

Seriously, never have I seen someone pimp themselves out so shamelessly. This guy will be worse than Ronaldo once he tells himself he’s as good as Maradona and Pele a few years down the line. And puts in a transfer request to play for his dream club.

He is THAT good but he’s also a cvnt. So I suppose he’ll fit right in at City.

You’re probably right, but I’m not quite as pessimistic as some on here re: a large transfer fee (£15M-30M). The wage structure is something that could have repurcussions but a one off payment I don’t think is so unfeasible if the Glazers are satisfied it will increase their own income in the long run.

Pretty sure that’s why we didn’t sign Nasri or Sneijder but why we did sign De Gea, Young and Jones for pretty large amounts – low wages. One of the reasons why youth is favoured by the Glazers.

RE – Scholes Carrick partnership. I would argue that it was more indispensible for us in the last five months of the 2011/12 season than Keane Scholes ever were. If Keane or Scholes were missing; Butt was an able, if lesser, deputy. Whenever the Carrick Scholes partnership was disrupted we were wretched in 2012.

Good stuff. I am glad you’re keeping the United Calypso, though I fear my gf may resent you forever. I couldn’t get it out of my head after listening to the last podcast of the season and spent the rest of the weekend tunelessly singing the first verse.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand just finished listening to this.
Don’t know if you’ll even see this, it took me quite some time to get over the events of May 13 and listen.

Anyway, I’m a supporter from Israel, been with United since I was 12 (1996), and found you guys during the international break right after the 8-2.

I wanted to say thank you.
Thank you for being there in some of the darkest moments I experienced as a United supporter, thank you for being there in some of the most fantastic ones. Thank you for enlightening me on so many different occasions, thank you for your brilliant analysis and the humour with which you dealt with many painful times this season.

I think this was a great season, notwithstanding the way it ended, it’s a season which provided memories I’ll carry with me for many years to come.

The Dutch rap… The brilliant financial analysis, the tackling of the Suarez/Evra issue, the predictions – thank you for making my running workouts all the more enjoyable.

I’ll admit – I did shed a tear once “United Calypso” was played that last time, I look forward for the Rant Cast’s return as much as I look forward for the new season.
Thank you, Ed and Paul.